


To gain a friend

by Fangirlmoon



Series: To build a home [3]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Autism, Autistic Spencer Reid, Emotional Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:27:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29425992
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangirlmoon/pseuds/Fangirlmoon
Summary: The journey of Morgan and Reid taking in a cat.[This is an AU in which Morgan and Reid share a house (as friends). The parts can be read independently.]
Relationships: Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid
Series: To build a home [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2155380
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

"What did you do to him?" Emily asks as Morgan and Reid step into the conference room. 

"Why is it that I always did something?" Morgan asks sitting down at the table and Reid next to Rossi one seat away from him. 

"Because Spencer is looking like you kicked a puppy in front of him." She says. "What happened?"

"We found a cat. A one eyed cat and it was hurt so we bought it to the animal shelter and Spencer wants to adopt it and I don't. There is no cat coming into my house." He explains Spencer's face that what if he was honest really hard to ignore and say no too. 

"Maybe the owner already got her back." Hotch tries.

"She didn't wear a name tag." Spencer says something for the first time. 

"That doesn't mean anything. Cats run of very often maybe the owner is already looking." Emily supports Hotch. It was smarter to get him away from the cat than to getting him hope by arguing for his side when Morgan wasn't giving in, it would break Spencer's heart even more.

"But he was really hurt."

"You heard it yourself he will be okay all because you paid attention to the side of the road and saw him there." 

"But you also heard that the cat has probably been abused in his former home. We can't let them take the cat back." Morgan knew he must look like the monster to everyone at the table right now. "You will barely notice it."

"No it's not happening. I am sorry." 

"But he was so thin and sweet-"

"Spencer no. Stop it." With a tear running down his face Spencer looked down and Morgan was looked at the way he probably deserves it but they don't even have time for it and he also doesn't need the cat to walk around the house and annoy him. 

There was a moment of silence before Garcia dared to start the presentation and an hour later they were seated at the plane. Spencer still awfully quiet and he continued to be over the whole day and didn't even want to cuddle when they had to share a bed that night. "C'mon you always want to." He encourages him to get over his ego. He knows that if Morgan wasn't the one causing the misery Spencer would practically throw himself into his arms right now. 

After another day of the silence treatment when he got his phone out of his pocket and called the shelter. "This is Derek Morgan I bought a cat in the other day and I just wanted to ask how it's doing." Smiling Emily shook her head, she was sitting next to him, driving the car.

"That's nice of you to ask you bought the orange one with the one eye right?"

"Yes."

"He is doing fine considered how injured he was."

"Is there any way we could- you know- take him in?"

"Absolutely but you will have to wait two weeks. It's the time we wait for the owner to show up."

"I understand,can I maybe just leave you my number and if anything changes you call?"

"Of course. You are also welcome to step by whenever you want. Truth be told the cat is most likely not being searched after. He is under weighted and it appears that he has been living on the street for a while now." The women tells him. 

"We see what we can do." With that he hung up and was prepared for whatever comments Emily has to offer. 

"Oh he's got you so wrapped around his finger." She says. "And I am not talking about the cat."

"You would have given in too."

"Of course I would have but I wouldn't admit it."

"We have to wait two weeks if the owner shows up so what do you think? Tell him or not?"

He ended up telling him when Reid was sitting in the conference room, eating his food and working at the same time and looked just unhappy doing it. "I called the animal shelter." His head immediately snapped up. "I was told he is fine and we can take him in-" A wide grin appeared on his face. "But we gotta wait for the next two weeks if the owner shows up."

"What if they do?"

"Than there is nothing we can do. But if they don't show up we will take the cat home with us." Excited Spencer got up and pulled Morgan into a hug. "Don't hug me to death."

"I am just really happy."

"I know."

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet, it's not a done deal."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have trouble visualizing the house:
> 
> https://pin.it/1hps1Kl

"Can we visit him?" Spencer asks at a office day. Morgan was just getting coffee when he was ambushed. 

"No they don't allow that."

"Since when?"

"You know the cat- and- you know- attachment- and- and-"

"I had that too when I got my cat. I just think it's some weird protocol." Emily steps him, helping Morgan out.

"Oh I thought- You can always visit?"

"If everything works out fine,you will soon have him around 24/7." Morgan encourages him and leaves the bullpen.

"That was low even for you."

"You know what Prentiss, you are the one that got so soft by Reid's talking about a cat you got your own."

"Well I can't argue there." She says walking next to him. "So why not letting him visit?"

"He will just get even more attached if it doesn't work out it will be horrible."

"Why did you lie when I asked you if we could visit the cat?" Spencer asks as they sit in the car on their way home.

"How did find out?"

"I didn't till right now." Right. "So why did you lie?"

"Because I don't want to see your heart break even more if it doesn't work out."

"I can handle it."

"I know but I can't okay?" 

"Can we visit him in our break tomorrow?" 

"Alright." The women working there was grateful to see him and more than happy to show them to their little one that was curled up in a little box. 

"Can I?" Exited Spencer shakes his hands looking at him. 

"Of course." She went to open the little gate and Spencer hesitated for a moment before sticking his hand in and carefully touching the him. "He is still sore so I advise you to be careful and to not be surprised when he flinch and then please stop petting him." The cat seemed fine with the contact. "You want me to take him out?"

"Can you?"

"Of course the cat can't flee out of this room there is not danger if he runs.You want me to sit him on your lap?" Spencer immediately sits down on the ground and waits for her to do what she announced while Morgan just watches. He was pretty sure at this point that he would pay the person that could claim it all of his savings to not have to tell Spencer that this isn't working out. Thrilled Spencer flaps his hands before going back to petting the cat letting his hand guide carefully over the not injured places and Morgan takes his phone out snapping a quick picture. "You already know how to name him?"

Questioning Spencer looks up to Morgan. "Your choice."

"Garfield." The man on the ground immediately answers.

"Only three more days and you can take him home."

"Can I hold him a little bit longer?"

"Of course, I have to go back just put the cat back in when you are done and don't hesitate to ask if you need any help." With a warm smile she leaves them too it and Morgans crouches down next to Spencer carefully petting the cat ones.

"I am sorry but we are already way to long gone for a coffee break."

"Just a little bit longer?"

"Three minutes okay?"

"Five?"

"Deal." 

With a heavy heart he watches Spencer putting the cat back into the box and then whispering:"I am gonna be back tomorrow Garfield." 

The next three days were horrible. The two of them tensed up because Spencer was fearing to not be able to take the cat in and Morgan tensed up fearing he would have to tell Spencer that his fear was happening. 

"Any news?" Hotch asks sticking his head into Morgan's office. 

"Nop."

"How long?"

"She said she would call at three if we can take him in."

Not even half an hour later Rossi was coming in asking the same question and hardly ten minutes after that Garcia asked so this sure wasn't helping either one of them with their nervousness. 

"Can you come check on Reid? I don't think he is doing well." Emily had texted him a minute ago and now he was on his way to him without any news. 

"You okay pretty boy?"

"I am really really nervous." He tells Morgan having his arms pressed to his stomach. 

"Can I help you in some way?"

"Did Mrs. Curtis call?"

"No I am sorry."

"That's a good sign right? She only wanted to call before three if someone picked it up."

"Yeah." Worried he looks down on Reid who is uncomfortably squirming in his chair moving his leg up an down. "C'mon let's get some coffee from the shop down the street."

"We already leave early today we can't also leave now."

"We can. I will do my paperwork at home tonight." Hotch is strict when it comes to deadlines and the quality of the paperwork but its not important for him were its done. "And I guess you have yours ready already."

"No I can't concentrate."

"How much have you finished?"

"Maybe two or three."

"Files?"

"Sheets." Guilty Spencer looks at him. "I am really not being lazy I just can't concentrate."

"I know." He watches Spencer grab his own arm tighter, pressing his fingernails into the fabric. "Only two more hours."

"I can't wait anymore."

"C'mon we take those files and get out of here." Morgan picks Spencer's stack up and motions him to follow him. 

"Were are we going?"

"We will do something were you don't have to sit around. I don't know, start with making the wooden porch in the back of our backyard ready or we could go grocery shopping today instead of tomorrow. And this evening, when the cat is settled in, we sit down and do our files you will go through them in a maximum of two hours."

"And you?"

"I will be fine don't worry." They ended up driving home and then grocery shopping to fill the two hours and it felt like an infinity. Morgan was constantly watching Spencer for signs that it gets worse and Spencer was constantly trying to get this feeling inside of him to stop so when they finally got a call saying they could pick up the cat there was an unbelievable weight lifted of Morgan's shoulder. 

"You two must be relived, I am at least." Mrs curtis says as she saw the two man walk in. "I was rooting for the two of you to get him."

"Thank you." Morgan says while Spencer was immediately crunching down to stick his finger inside the box. "He will be very loved." He says with a grin and the women did the same. While Spencer was adoring the cat,Morgan paid and thanked the owner of the shelter before placing a hand on Reid's back. "C'mon we can take him home now." It wasn't a surprise that Spencer didn't answer but the smile on his face was a good enough reason to not worry. They had prepared the house before. Spencer had bought something to play with for him and had stocked up on the other things such as cat food and other stuff. Gently he sets the box down and opened the gate. They had placed the things in the room at the end of the corridor. "Give him time,pretty boy." Spencer moves a little bit aside sitting legs crossed on the parquet floor. "I will make us something to eat and then after that start on my files okay?" Spencer nods and tries again luring the cat out of the box with the little toy the shelter had left in it. 

Meanwhile Morgan snapped a picture sending it in the group chat informing the others that everything went well. It's not like Spencer will never see it anyway with his old phone. He uses it even less now that Hotch only calls Morgan and Morgan than informs Reid about new cases.

Morgan watched Spencer's face lit up when the cat slowly walked out of the box and walked quietly down the hall while the two of them were eating. "Go looking." He encourages him and even before he spoke the last syllable Spencer was up and left the kitchen to watch the cat. 

His heart warmed even more when he came down in the morning and found Spencer sleeping on the ground next to the cats place. Gently he woke him up and then let's him ramble about how the cat first wanted to sleep on the small book shelf in the living room and about how he thinks that the cat likes his new home before encouraging him to get ready for work.

When he had to hear all the ramble again when they met Hotch,he didn't mind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have trouble visualizing the house:
> 
> https://pin.it/1hps1Kl

It's been nearly eight months since the cat moved in with them and he became a loved part of the household. Mostly he would sleep in Spencer's bed and when they were on cases was feed by the neighbor's kid that liked to play baseball with Morgan.

"Derek?" Carefully Reid nudges Morgan's arm who was sleeping in his bed. "Morgan you need to wake up."

"I am." Tired he looked up to his friend who had tears in his eyes that made him more awake and slowly sitting up. "What's wrong?"

"Garfield is gone."

"What?" Confused Morgan looked at his clock. "Its 4 am."

"I know but he is always there when I go to bed and he just didn't come home. I searched everywhere."

"He probably is still outside he can come inside through the little- you know what I mean."

"But he never is out this late." Spencer says again. "What if something happened?"

"Cat sometimes don't come home for a few days, he will be back when he is hungry." 

"I really think something is wrong."

"The moment the sun is up we will check the garden and you already checked the house. I am sure he will be back before we wake up." Morgan himself had started to close the cat into his heart but he is also the more rational one when it comes to stuff like this. "Come here, we will catch the last one and a half hour of sleep and then look."

"I don't know if I can sleep."

"It's okay." Hesitating Spencer gets under the blanket. He was cold and shaking. "Have you been searching all night?"

"Yes."

"Oh kid, you could have woke me up sooner." He pulls Spencer cold buring his nose in his curls. "It's okay he will be okay."

They searched the entire property in the morning and there was no trait of Garfield. Not between the bushes not in the basement not in any of the rooms nor in the front garden or in the half unpacked go-backs in the guest bathroom. There is no trait. "Okay shot kid what were the most uncommon places we found him?"

"Dry cleaner."

"Checked that."

"Laundry basket."

"Checked that."

"In my closet."

"You checked that?"

"I checked it last night but I will go again."

While Spencer ran up Derek had time to read a text message from Hotch asking were they are. "We will be in late, but we are fine." He typed back before Spencer came back down saying he wasn't there. "Then let's get ready for work and he will be back."

"How do you know that?"

"I don't but cats do that sometimes." 

"But not Garfield." Spencer tells him. "He always comes back in the evening it never has been different."

"We aren't here every evening we don't know that. Go get dressed and we will look this evening if he is back and then think about further steps alright?"

"No." There were the tears in his eyes again and just in that moment Hotch called. 

"Morgan here."

"Are you guys okay? Its almost 9 and you are still not here."

"Yes we have a little problem but we will drive of in ten minutes." Morgan tells his boss looking at Spencer to get him to move and throw on something for work. 

"Good I will see you then."

"We can't go to work." 

"We can't wait here all day." He tries touching Spencer but he flinches back and starts to cry even more so Morgan stands with him in the kitchen letting him deal with his emotions before Spencer eventually wipes his tears away and does what Morgan had suggested. 

They walk into the bullpen with Morgan having an arm around Reid and if this day couldn't have gone worse they got a case.   
"We can't go."

"Spencer I will talk to Dillan that he checks in more often and tells us if Garfield shows up or was there okay?" 

"But what if he is hurt?" Spencer asks as they were standing in the bullpen the others were already sitting at the round table. 

"We can't know that."

"I really want to stay here."

"I know, come here." Morgan pulls him into a hug for a few moments. "We will get this case done in no time and maybe when we get back Garfield will be walking around the house again. It's only been a day."


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have trouble visualizing the house:
> 
> https://pin.it/1hps1Kl

JJ, Rossi and Morgan were standing in a conference room in a small precinct in Ohio when the call came in. "Agent Morgan who am I speaking too?" 

"This is Lochlyn Kelly,I found your cat."

"Oh thank God-"

"I am incredibly sorry but ge is not alive. I found him on the side of a round he was probably hit by a car." Morgan stayed quiet for a moment trying to process what the man just told him. "Agent?"

"Yeah, thank you for calling. Were- eh were is he?"

"I bought him to an animal shelter they put him down."

"Thank you for trying to help and calling."

"Of course." With hanging up his mind started running in worry. He has to tell Spencer this. He has to tell him that Garfield wasn't coming home. 

"What is it?" Rossi asks.

"Our cat was hit by a car and died." Morgan says quietly picking up another file to do anything with his hands while he tries to think about how to tell Spencer this. 

"I am sorry, Derek." Comforting JJ puts her hand on his shoulder. 

"Guys I think I found something." Spencer came into the room with a file in his hand grinning a little bit about his victory. It was the first time Morgan had seen him a little bit more loose since Garfield went missing four days ago. "The father of one child didn't went to work that day and so didn't multiply of the fathers kids that morning. What if this isn't done by one person but more a revenge for something that happened to their kid's sport team?" 

Nobody of them said anything just looking at Spencer for a few second. It was unbearable that his is going to hurt him. He has an emotional attachment to the cat that was unbelievable. For a long time he didn't talk about anything else and Morgan had witnessed himself how the two were just made for each other. How Spencer always waits up for the cat to come home to go to bed and how the cat always walks behind him when they are home. He wasn't surprised when he heard his voice one day from downstairs and Spencer was talking to Garfield about something.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, that's good." Morgan snatched the file from his hand. "How did you find this out?"

"Garcia. I just knew from one kid that his father wasn't at work that moment when she wanted to pick up candy at his store and then I checked with Garcia the others."

"Then lets bring this to Hotch." 

Spencer was right of course and they arrested the group of men and if you have five people who committed multiple murder together, it doesn't take long till one of them talks. 

Who wasn't talking was Morgan meaning while even Hotch knew now Spencer was still left in the dark. "Did Dillan call?" Spencer asks as they pack everything up at the precinct.

"No, probably still at practice." Derek lies looking down on the files he was putting in a box while there was a heavy silence in the room. 

"Do you think we should start looking at animal shelters?"

"He has a name tag around his neck they would have called."

"But what if they didn't? We could go after we land-"

"Spencer they are over filled they would call before they do anything." Morgan snaps and Spencer looks at him confused.

"Do you not want him back?"

"I do." 

"The Why don-"

"Can you drop this topic for five minutes?" It was a poorly attempt to push back telling Spencer what happened and it was clearly not the right thing to do but Spencer did drop it and was now sitting at the end of the jet on the couch, his legs under a blanket and making crossword puzzles.

"You can't just ignore it." Hotch remarks looking up from his file. 

"I just don't know how to tell him, he loved that cat."

"I know." 

"No you don't you didn't see them curled into bed you didn't hear Spencer telling the cat over the problems of some math equation-"

"It doesn't matter, you will have to tell him eventually." 

"Tell me what?" Spencer asks standing next to them.

"Maybe sit back down I will come with you." The younger agent sits back down drawing his knees to his chest after Morgan had placed a blanket over them. "I got a call this Morning about Garfield." Nervous he places his hand on Spencer's knee. "And I am really sorry but he was put down."

"Why?"

"The person who called didn't say much but they believed that he was hit by a car." Carefully he studies Spencer's facial expressions while the rest of the team was as quiet as they can be. "I am really sorry-"

"Did you allow that?" Spencer suddenly asked furious.

"What?"

"You-you said it yourself they would call When- when he-"

"No, no I was called afterwards by the person who found him." Morgan tries touching Reid's hand but takes his back when Reid pulled back. "I didn't allow anything." 

"You said he would come back."

"I shouldn't have I am sorry." 

"He wasn't supposed to die yet."

"I know." 

"Can we see him?"

"I don't think so. I don't have the name of the shelter but if you really want to I will call the guy back and find it out." The chance is not huge that the cat is still there. 

"No."

"That's okay too." Insecure what to do Morgan studies Reid's body language but he wasn't sure what he was gonna do next. They is no doubt that Spencer feels the grief it's just that he doesn't know how he will express it. "Come here." He launched himself in Morgans arms who brings them down into a more laying position and can feel Spencer tapping his fingers on Morgan's chest while Morgan carries his hands through his hair. Spencer doesn't cry about the death till the next day when they were just about to get go work and Spencer realizes he doesn't have to refill the water. Morgan immediately puts his keys and jacket back down and walks towards him, holding him close.

"I really liked him"

"I did too, kid."

"I don't want him to be dead, I want him to come home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my first language so I am sorry if some mistakes make you want to clean your eyes with bleach.


End file.
